Elena Zimina's Real Estate

FAST FACTS Calif. median home price: November 2016: California: $501,710 Calif. highest median home price by region/county: San Francisco, $1,360,500 Calif. lowest median home price by region/county: Siskiyou, $183,000 Calif. Pending Home Sales Index : Statewide pending home sales increased in December on a seasonally adjusted basis, with the Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI)* rising 1.9 percent from 115.8 from December 2015 to 118.1 in December 2016. Calif. Traditional Housing Affordability Index : Third Quarter 2016: 31 percent Mortgage rates : Week ending 1/19/2017 (Source: Freddie Mac) 30 year fixed: 4.09% fees/points: 0.5% 15-year fixed: 3.34% fees/points: 0.4%

RISING MORTGAGE RATES ARE DAMPENING FIRST-TIME BUYER PLANS FOR SPRING New data from  realtor.com  suggests that the share of first-time buyers planning to buy in spring 2017 fell sharply when mortgage rates began to rise at the end of last year, dropping by as much as 10 percent since last October. At the same time, record low inventory levels, higher prices and heavy buyer competition is creating more urgency for active home buyers. According to  realtor.com ®'s January survey of active home buyers, 44 percent of buyers planning to buy in spring 2017 are first-time home buyers. This has dropped significantly since the survey was conducted in October, when 55 percent of buyers of planning a spring purchase indicated they were looking for their first home. The average 30-year conforming rate rose to more than 4.2 percent by the end of December 2016 from 3.4 percent at the end of September 2016. With average rates today about half a percentage point higher than they were in 2016, a

FREDDIE MAC: 30-YEAR MORTGAGE RATE FALLS Source: HousingWire The Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey posted its first mortgage rate decrease since the election after a nine-week rise.  Sean Becketti, chief economist at Freddie Mac, said this marks the first time since 2014 that mortgage rates opened the year above 4 percent. Bankrate.com  Chief Financial Analyst Greg McBride noted at the time that the week’s increase in mortgage rates was dubbed the ‘Trump Tantrum,’ the biggest one-week increase since the ‘Taper Tantrum’ in June 2013. In the two weeks after the election, the 30-year mortgage rate jumped 40 basis points, surging to 3.94 percent. Now, looking at the latest Freddie Mac report, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage sits at 4.20 percent for the week ending Jan. 5, 2017, down from last week when it averaged 4.32 percent. However, this is still significantly higher than a year ago at this time when the 30-year FRM averaged 3.97 percent.  The 15-year FRM this